Amazon: Buying Growth at a Price

Ever since it was founded in 1994, Amazon.com has been all about transformation.

The Seattle-based online retailer started off by reinventing the way books were sold. Then it redefined itself by hawking everything from furniture to electronics — in the process challenging giant retailers such as Wal-Mart head-on.

More recently, the company doubled down on its dotcom roots through tablets, streaming video, and cloud computing. Transformation, though, comes at a steep price.